Running for president, however, she is obliged to speak forthrightly on issues of war, terror and constitutional authority, especially if she hopes to present herself as a fresh alternative to a failed regime. For a senator who went along with too many of that regime’s excesses, articulating a credible critique of the current presidency is essential.

In an interview with Michael Tomasky, editor of the new Guardian America website, she comments on those excesses and suggests she will undo much of what her predecessors have wrought. Not only does Clinton accuse George W. Bush and Dick Cheney of overweening conduct, but she charges them with venturing far beyond their historically accepted authority.

Asked what presidential powers she might relinquish or renegotiate with Congress, she avoids specifics and promises only to “review” those issues if elected. But the tenor of her response leaves little doubt.

“Well, I think it is clear that the power grab undertaken by the Bush-Cheney administration has gone much further than any other president, and has been sustained for longer,” she said. “Other presidents, like Lincoln, have had to take on extraordinary powers but would later go to the Congress for either ratification or rejection. But when you take the view that they’re not extraordinary powers, but they’re inherent powers that reside in the office and therefore you have neither obligation to request permission nor to ask for ratification, we’re in a new territory here.”

More at the link.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman